Romulus
The Foundation of Rome
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Ares takes Romulus to
Heaven
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Relevant links
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Romulus in GROUPS
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"All that you see here,
stranger, where mighty Rome now stands, was grass
and hill before the coming of Trojan
Aeneas." [Propertius,
Elegies
4.1.2]
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The Roman extension of the Greek heroic myths is
achieved mainly through
Aeneas, who having fled
from the burning Troy,
first wandered in the Mediterranean, and later
settled down in Latium, starting a dynasty of kings
who ruled in Lavinium and Alba Longa and who were
the predecessors of Rome.
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Introduction:
Some Kings & Emigrants in Italy
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Philoctetes
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Emigration to Italy, both before and after the
Trojan War was not
uncommon.
Philoctetes, unable
to return home because of the revolution that was
taken place in Meliboea, sailed to Campania in
Italy, and after making war on the Lucanians, he
settled in Crimissa. But this is all that has been
reported about him.
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King Idomeneus 1
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Nothing is known about the fate of King
Idomeneus 1 of Crete
either. Having being deposed by an usurper while he
was fighting in Troy, he
was not able to return to his land and instead
headed for Italy.
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Diomedes 2 &
King Daunus
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Diomedes 2, who had
led the Argives against
Troy, returned to
Argos after the war, not
knowing that his wife Aegialia plotted against him.
When he realized that he had been conspired
against, he first took sanctuary at the altar of
Hera in
Argos, but by night he
escaped to Italy with his companions. There he was
received into the court of King Daunus. Some say
that he had sons, Amphinomus 3 and Diomedes 3, by
Daunus' Daughter, but nothing is known about them.
Some affirm that Diomedes
2 died of old age; others that he was caused to
disappear while his companions were changed into
birds; and still others assert that King Daunus
murdered him by a trick.
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Daunus, Turnus &
Aeneas
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King Daunus was father of Turnus, the man who
was at war with Aeneas in
Italy. Turnus was king of the Rutulians in Italy,
and wished, like Aeneas,
to marry Lavinia 2; he had this wish backed by her
mother Amata, whose nephew he was. Turnus was son
of Venilia, who was said to have consorted not only
with Daunus, but also with the god Janus. Turnus,
whom some call Tyrrhenus 2, was killed in single
combat by Aeneas.
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Tyrsenus
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Tyrrhenus 1, or as some say, Tyrsenus, is
considered to be the inventor of the trumpet. He
emigrated in ancient times from Lydia to Tyrrhenia
(Italy), which was called after him. According to
some, Tyrsenus is the son of
Heracles 1 and
Omphale; others call him son of Atys 3 and
Callithea, and still others say that he was son of
Telephus, son of
Heracles 1. Atys 3 was
king of Lydia in Asia Minor, and also considered to
be a descendant of
Heracles 1. However,
some call him son of Manes, son of
Zeus and
Gaia, Manes being the first
king of Lydia. Others say that Atys 3 was son of
Cotys 2, son of Manes and Callirrhoe 1, the
Oceanid. Tyrsenus had a brother Lydus, who remained
in the country as king of Lydia and called the
country after himself. Tyrsenus' son Hegeleos is
said to have taught the Dorians how to play the
trumpet.
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Xuthus 2 and the Ausonians
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Xuthus 2 is said to have reigned over the land
in the neighbourhood of Leontini in Sicily. Xuthus
2 was son of Aeolus 2,
the always happy ruler of the winds.
Aeolus 2 was son of
Hippotes 1, son of Mimas 4, son of King
Aeolus 1 of Thessaly,
son of Hellen 1 (eponym of the
Hellenes), son of
Deucalion 1, the man
who survived the Flood.
Xuthus 2's mother was Cyane 2, daughter of Liparus,
a man who was chased from Italy and came to the
Aeolian Islands. Liparus was son of Auson, king of
Italy in the times when the Italians were called
Ausonians
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Traces of impious Lycaon
2
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Among other Greek emigrants who came to Italy,
but in earlier times, are Daunius and his brothers
Iapyx 1, and Peucetius, sons of the impious
Lycaon 2. Also Oenotrus,
perhaps the youngest of the brothers, is said to
have emigrated, and the land of Oenotria in Italy
received its name after him. He was born seventeen
generations before the
Trojan War, and being
dissatisfied with his portion of his father's land,
left Arcadia and with
his brother Peucetius emigrated to Italy.
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Corinthians
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After the founding of Rome Demaratus arrived in
Italy, bringing with him a host of people from
Corinth. He married a
Tarquinian woman, and had by her a son Tarquinius
Priscus, who became king of Rome.
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The expedition of
Heracles 1
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Eryx 1, called by some son of
Poseidon but by others
son of Butes 1 (the Argonaut) and
Aphrodite, was king
over the Elymi in Italy, and is remembered for
having challenged Heracles
1 to wrestle for the sake of a bull, which
resulted in his death. During his trip through
Italy, Heracles 1 also
killed King Faunus 2, son of
Hermes, who used to
sacrifice his guests to the god that was his
father.
Otherwise it is also said that when
Heracles 1 returned
from his expedition to Iberia (Spain), he came into
Italy where part of his followers asked to be
dismissed, and the permission being granted, they
settled in the Capitoline Hill. Among them there
were Trojan prisoners, whom
Heracles 1 had taken
when he sacked Troy during
the reign of Laomedon 1, one generation before the
Trojan War. It is
during this expedition that
Heracles 1, they say,
founded Herculaneum in the place where his fleet
lay at anchor.
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Italus
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Another king of Italy was Italus, after whom the
country was named. Some say he is the son of
Telegonus 3, son of
Odysseus either by
Circe or by
Calypso 3. It is said
that when Telegonus 3 learned from
Circe that he was a son of
Odysseus, he sailed in
search of him. And having come to Ithaca, he drove
away some of the cattle, and when
Odysseus defended them,
Telegonus 3 wounded him with the spear he had in
his hands, which was barbed with the spine of a
stingray, and Odysseus
died of the wound. Telegonus 3 bitterly lamented
what he had done when he learned that he had slain
his own father, but nevertheless he married
Odysseus' wife
Penelope, and so Italus
was born. Telegonus 3 is said to have been made
immortal by Circe, who
sent him to the Islands
of the Blest together with
Penelope. Italus had
children: Roma 2, Sicelus 2, and Romus. After Roma
2, according to some, the city Rome was named.
Sicelus 2, who was received as a guest by King
Morges, Italus' successor, crossed to Sicily,
calling the island after himself, and reigning over
the Sicels. Romus is also said to have been the
cause of the name of the city of Rome, but he is
also given many other parentages.
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Evander 2
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Evander 2 was known for having emigrated to
Italy from Arcadia. He
was called a wise man, and on his arrival he
founded a city Pallantium on the banks of the river
Tiber, called after their mother city in
Arcadia. He was the son
of Hermes and the nymph
Carmentis. Carmentis was a daughter of the river
god Ladon 1, and was known for being skilled in the
art of divination. She was the first to foretell
how great Aeneas' line
would become. Evander 2 married Carmenta and had by
her two children, Pallas 6, and Lavinia 1. Pallas 6
became an ally of Aeneas
in Italy, and was killed by Turnus, king of the
Rutulians in Italy who was at war with
Aeneas. Lavinia 1 is said
to have consorted with
Heracles 1 and to have
given birth to a child Pallas 7, who died before he
reached puberty. The town of Pallantium was named
after him as he died there.
Evander 2 was still worshipped long afterwards,
and when Rome, in historical times, became an
Empire, public sacrifices were still performed
yearly to him and Carmenta, and altars were erected
in their honour in the Aventine and Capitoline
hills.
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Prince of Athens
emigrates
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Another who is also said to have emigrated to
Italy is Hippolytus 4,
Theseus' son.
Phaedra, his stepmother,
fell in love with him but was refused since he
hated all women. But
Phaedra, fearing that he
might accuse her to his father, falsely charged
Hippolytus 4 with an assault. King
Theseus believed her,
and prayed to Poseidon
that Hippolytus 4 might perish. So when the latter
was riding in his chariot and driving beside the
sea, Poseidon sent up a
bull from the surf, and the horses were frightened,
the chariot dashed to pieces, and Hippolytus 4,
entangled in the reins, was dragged to death.
Hippolytus 4 was the son of an Amazon, perhaps
Antiope 4, or Hippolyte 3, or Melanippe 6. In any
case, Hippolytus 4 is among those who were raised
from the dead by
Asclepius; so when he
returned to life he went to Italy where he became
king under the name of Virbius 1. He married Aricia
and had a son Virbius 2, but nothing else is known
about this family.
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Trojan women force Greek men
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Also the sisters of King
Priam 1 of
Troy, Aethylla, Astyoche 4,
and Medesicaste 2, came to Italy as captives of the
Greeks. But while being there and fearing slavery
in Hellas, they set fire to the vessels, forcing
the Greeks to settle in Italy. For this deed, the
sisters were called Nauprestides. Astyoche 4 had
been the wife of
Telephus, son of
Heracles 1, and was
mother of Eurypylus 6, a Mysian killed by
Neoptolemus at
Troy.
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Trojan women force Trojan men
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In a similar way, others tell that Trojan
refugees came with their vessels and anchored in
the river Tiber. Here the women were distressed
thinking about the sea and one of them, Roma 1,
proposed to the other women to burn the Trojan
ships that were anchored, so that their husbands
would settle there, instead of sailing again. So
they did, and having founded a city, they named it
Rome after her.
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Trojan traitors come to Italy as emigrants
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Also the Trojan Antenor
1, whom the Achaeans spared because his
intervention had saved the lives of
Odysseus and
Menelaus when they came
to Troy as envoys in order
to demand the restoration of
Helen and the property, is
said to have crossed with his children over to
Italy after the Trojan
War. But some have believed that
Antenor 1 was spared
because Troy, they say, was
not taken through the trick of the
WOODEN HORSE, but by
means of the betrayal of
Antenor 1.
There are still others who say that it was
Aeneas who betrayed the
city of Troy, and that
because of this service the Achaeans allowed him
and his family to safely leave the city.
Aeneas, they affirm, had
been excluded from his prerrogatives by King
Priam 1 and his son
Paris, who could be his
successor after the death of
Hector 1. So he
overthrew the king and negotiated with the enemy.
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Results of emigration
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Of all these emigration waves or already
existing kingdoms,
Aeneas' line was the one
to be most successful, as it had been predicted by
Carmentis, and also by
Poseidon during the
Trojan War:
"Even
Zeus might be angry if
Achilles killed
Aeneas, who after all is destined to
survive and to save the House of Dardanus from
extinction ... Priam's line has fallen out of favour
with Zeus, and now
Aeneas shall be King of
Troy and shall be followed by his
children's children in the time to come."
[Poseidon to the
gods. Homer,
Iliad
20.300]
After Aeneas defeated
King Turnus of the Rutulians, he married Lavinia 2,
daughter of King Latinus 1 of Latium, and in that
way he founded the dynasty of the kings of Lavinum
& Alba Longa. King Latinus 1, whose parentage
is very much in dispute (he is called son of Faunus
1 and Marica, or son of
Odysseus and
Calypso 3, or son of
Telemachus and
Circe, or son of
Odysseus and
Circe, or son of
Heracles 1 and an
Hyperborean Girl), died in the war, and his wife
Amata, who had favoured Turnus, hanged herself.
Aeneas is then
succeeded in the throne by the kings of Alba Longa
listed below [see also Throne
Succession: From Troy to Rome, and list
at
Aeneas].
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Alba
Longa
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Aeneas' son by his
Trojan wife
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Aeneas was first
succeeded by his son Ascanius 2, son of Creusa 2 or
Eurydice 10, who founded Alba and Mount Albanus.
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Aeneas' son by his
Latin wife
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Upon his death, in the 38th year of his reign,
Silvius, his half-brother, son of
Aeneas and Lavinia 2,
succeeded to the rule.
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Silvius Aeneas &
Latinus 2
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Silvius was succeeded by his son Silvius
Aeneas, who was in turn
succeeded by his brother Latinus 2.
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Alba and successors
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After Latinus 2 his son Alba became king. Some
say that Alba was succeeded by Epytus 2, but others
say Capetus 4 was Alba's successor.
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Capys 2
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After either of them Capys 2 came to the throne.
Capys 2 is called son of Epytus 2 and father of
Capetus 2, his own successor.
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Tiberinus 2
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Capetus 2 was succeeded by his son Tiberinus 2,
who was also called Tiberius Silvius and drowned in
the river Tiber, named after him. Tiberinus 2
undertook a campaign against the Etruscans, but
while leading his army across the Alba river he
fell into the flood and met his death, whence the
name of the river was chosen.
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Tiberinus 2 was succeeded either by Agrippa or
Acrota
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Some say his son Agrippa became king after him,
but others say that it was his other son Acrota who
succeeded him but soon resigning the throne in
favour of Aventinus 2.
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Agrippa was succeeded either by Remulus 1 or
Allodius
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Among those who say that Agrippa was king after
Tiberinus 2 there are those who claim that he was
succeeded by Allodius while others say the
successor was Remulus 1.
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Remulus 1
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This Remulus 1 is sometimes called son of
Tiberinus 2 and other times son of Agrippa. Remulus
1 perished by a thunderbolt while striving to
imitate the thunder.
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Allodius
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Allodius, said by others to have succeeded
Agrippa, was of a tyrannical nature and, being
contemptuous of the divine powers, he made
imitations of lightning and thunder (as it is also
said about Remulus 1) terrifying the people as if
he were a god. But himself he was slain by a stroke
of lightning and his entire house was submerged in
the Alban lake.
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Aventinus 2
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After Allodius or Remulus 1 or Acrota, Aventinus
2 came to the throne. From him the place and also
the hill took their name.
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Proca
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Aventinus 2 was succeeded by Proca, who had two
sons Amulius and Numitor 2.
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Amulius seizes the kingdom by violence
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At Proca's death his younger son Amulius seized
the kingship by violence. Some say that he governed
by the force of arms and that he vanquished his
brother Numitor 2, Romulus' grandfather, and robbed
him of power. It is also told that he divided the
whole inheritance into two parts, setting the
treasures and the gold which had been brought from
Troy over against the
kingdom, and Numitor 2 chose the kingdom. Amulius,
then in possession of the treasure, and made more
powerful by it than Numitor 2, easily took the
kingdom away from his brother.
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Romulus
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Numitor 2's daughter condemned to be a virgin...
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But as with power follows the fear of losing it,
Amulius tried to prevent Numitor 2's daughter Ilia
to have children who could challenge his rule. So,
for this purpose he appointed her priestess of
Vesta (Hestia), and thus
she was bound to live a virgin all her days.
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... but in vain
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However, Ilia got pregnant, which was, for a
Vestal, punished with death. She did not suffer the
capital punishment because Amulius' daughter Antho
interceded successfully on her behalf. That is how
Ilia could give birth to the twins Romulus and
Remus 1.
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The twins exposed
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When Amulius learned that the twins were born,
he ordered a servant Faustulus to expose them,
although some describe him as the shepherd who
found the exposed twins, and together with his wife
Acca 2 (Acca Larentia) took care of them. When they
then were exposed under a wild fig-tree, a she-wolf
came and gave them suck, and it is also said that a
woodpecker helped in feeding them and watched over
them. And as the wolf and the woodpecker are sacred
to Mars (Ares), some argue,
the children were called sons of Mars.
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Amulius?
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Against this story goes the belief that Amulius,
having raped Ilia, became the father of the twins.
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The strange Phantom
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It is also told that when a certain Tarchetius,
a most lawless and cruel man, was king of Alba, he
was visited with a strange phantom in his house,
namely a phallus rising out of the hearth and
remaining there many days. An oracle said to
Tarchetius that a virgin must have intercourse with
this phantom, and she should bear a son most
illustrious for his courage, and of great good
fortune and strength. Tarchetius then bade one of
his daughters to consort with the phantom, but she
sent a handmaid in her stead. When the handmaid
gave birth to twins, Tarchetius gave them to
Teratius with orders to destroy them, but he
carried them to the river-side, and laid them down
there. Then a she-wolf visited the children and
gave them suck.
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Reared by Faustulus
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In any case, the twins grew to manhood under the
supervision of Faustulus and his wife Acca 2, and
both were described as courageous young men afraid
of nothing, though Romulus seemed to have better
judgement and sharper political sagacity.
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The discovery of the truth about the twins leads
to change of government
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For a time the twins believed they were the
children of Faustulus and Acca 2, and so they did
at the time when Numitor 2 held Remus 1 as a
prisoner for a minor quarrel concerning a matter of
cattle. However, when Numitor 2 questioned Remus 1
about his origin he started to believe that there
could be a relation with his daughter's pregnancy
years ago. So Faustulus was called to Numitor 2,
and so were all those who had been concerned with
the exposure of the twins. From all this
questioning Numitor 2 concluded that he was the
grandfather of the twins, and when the twins also
realized it, they all agreed that time had come for
the restoration of Numitor 2 to the throne. For
this purpose they decided to proceed at once to
action and revolt against Amulius, Numitor 2 and
Remus 1 from inside the city and Romulus, who was
commanding an armed force, from without. The
revolution was short, for as Amulius did not have
the time to make any plans, he was almost
immediately arrested and executed.
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The Twins leave Alba
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But as those who lead a revolt seldom give the
power to someone else, the twins were not willing
to live in Alba unless as its rulers. However, they
could not rule the city while their grandfather
Numitor 2 was alive. So they restored the
government to him but at the same time decided to
found a new city.
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Dispute between the Twins
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Having vanquished their enemies and being
divorced from their grandfather, the twins had no
one to quarrel with except themselves. So, while
Romulus chose a certain site for the new city, his
brother Remus 1 chose another one. And since when
humans disagree they might be willing to leave the
decision to objects or animals, Romulus and Remus 1
consented in settling their quarrel through the
flight of birds of omen. So having taken their
seats on the ground apart from one another, Remus 1
saw six vultures and Romulus twelve.
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Death of Remus 1
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But some say that Romulus lied about that
number, and that Remus 1, being aware of the
deceit, ridiculed some parts of the work, and
obstructed others. At some point, Remus 1 leapt
across the new walls of Rome, and for that he was
killed either by Romulus or Celer, who was
instructed to let no man cross the new walls, and
put to death whoever dared to do so. Ignorant of
this, Remus 1 mocked the lowly walls and leaped
across them, being immediately killed by Celer.
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First Civil War
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In the battle that followed, for this one was
Rome's first civil war, Faustulus, who reared the
twins, and his brother Pleistinus, who had assisted
him in rearing them, were killed. After having
buried them along with his brother, Romulus
proceeded to build his city, taking counsel from
people from Tuscany, who prescribed all the details
in accordance with certain sacred ordinances. They
say that Rome was considered as founded in the
third year of the sixth Olympiad, which should be
in 754 BC.
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The abduction of the Sabine women
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After having organized all aspects of civil and
military life and shortly after the foundation of
the city, the rape of the Sabine women was
perpetrated during a religious ceremony offered to
the god Consus (Counsel), whose altar Romulus
claimed to have discovered. Romulus appointed by
proclamation a sacrifice, and invited all people to
the games and spectacle. Among these the Sabines
had come, and at a signal from Romulus his soldiers
drew their swords and ravished away the daughters
of the Sabines, letting the men to escape, for, as
they claimed, their purpose had been to blend the
two peoples together.
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Number of abducted
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Some say that the ravished Sabine maidens were
only 30, but others say 527, and still others 683,
and that among them there was only one married
woman, Hersilia, who some say was married to
Hostilius, while others say she was married to
Romulus himself.
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The abduction of the
Sabines
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War
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The Sabines would have reacted with war, had not
their women being held by the Romans. So instead
they tried to persuade Romulus through embassies,
but they had no effect. Then Acron 3, king of the
Caeninenses, who since the ravishing of the Sabine
women had been suspicious of Romulus, advanced
against him with a great force. However, that army
was routed by Romulus, who also killed Acron 3 in
single combat. But he promised the defeated that
they should be Roman citizens on equal terms with
the rest.
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More War
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Afraid of the growing power of the new city,
several other Sabine kingdoms raised in arms
against Rome, but they were likewise defeated, and
as always, Rome united and incorporated the
conquered, distributing the territory among the
citizens
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Last war against the Sabines. The treason of
Tarpeia 2
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Finally the Sabines sent their own ruler, King
Tatius, against Rome. The citadel was defended by
Tarpeius, but his daughter Tarpeia 2 betrayed it to
the Sabines, because she coveted the golden armlets
which she saw the Sabines wearing. These armlets
she asked as payment for her treachery. King Tatius
was delighted and agreed, whereupon Tarpeia 2
opened one of the gates by night. When the Sabine
army came in, Tatius took not only his armlet but
also his shield, and casting them upon her,
instructed the army to effect the payment in that
way. As all men followed his example Tarpeia 2 was
buried under the mass of metal, and died from its
weight. This is why it has been said that those who
offer to betray are loved, but those who have
betrayed are hated. But some have said that Tarpeia
2 was a daughter of Tatius living with Romulus
under compulsion.
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Appeal of the Sabine Women
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The Sabines being now masters of the citadel,
several encounters took place, but there was no
victor. As the battles continued, the Sabine women,
who had now being Roman citizens long enough,
seeing their fathers fighting their husbands, came
out to the battlefield with their children in their
arms, and both armies, thus moved to compassion,
drew apart to give the women place between the
lines of battle. So they reproached the Sabine
army:
"You did not
come to avenge us while we were still maidens, but
now you would tear wives from their husbands and
mothers from their children. If you have to, then
carry us with your sons-in-law and their children,
and so restore to us our fathers and kindred, but
do not rob us of our children and husbands."
[The Sabine women. Plutarch,
Parallel
Lives Romulus 19.4]
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One nation
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This kind of appeal led finally to a truce and a
peace conference, which resulted in a peace treaty
stating, among other things, that Rome should be
inhabited by both Romans and Sabines in equal
terms, and that Romulus and Tatius should be joint
kings and commanders of the army. In similar
manner, they adopted each other's customs, and
instituted new feasts and sacrifices which they
shared.
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Murder of the Ambassadors and death of Tatius
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Five years after these events, some kinsmen of
Tatius attacked the ambassadors of Laurentum on
their way to Rome, rob them of their money and
killed them. This was the only occasion of dissent
between Romulus and Tatius, because Romulus wished
to punish the perpetrators at once, while Tatius
tried to turn aside the course of justice. However,
the friends of the ambassadors took justice in
their own hands, falling upon Tatius as he was
sacrificing at Lavinium, and killed him. Romulus,
who was together with Tatius, was spared by the
murderers and escorted by them with loud praises of
his sense of justice. Romulus buried Tatius but he
never took any steps to prosecute his murderers,
saying that murder had been requited with murder.
For this performance, he was suspected of being
secretly pleased of having got rid of his
colleague. This episode had no consequences and
caused no disturbances in the government. But some
time later, when a plague fell upon the city and
all agreed that it was caused by the miscarriage of
justice in the cases of the death of Tatius and the
ambassadors, the murderers on both sides were
delivered and punished.
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La Grandeur de Romulus
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After these events Romulus waged and won several
wars, but it is said that he renounced his popular
ways, and dressing a scarlet tunic and over it a
toga bordered with purple, sat like an absolute
tyrant on a recumbent throne while giving audience.
He is said to have annoyed the patricians in the
senate, whose counsel he did not seek in important
decisions.
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Discontent & Disappearance
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So one day he disappeared without leaving any
trace. Some affirm that Romulus was killed by the
patricians for releasing the hostages he had taken
after the war against the Veientes, and for no
longer comporting himself in the same manner toward
the original citizens, and for exercising his power
more like a tyrant than a king. Those who conspired
against him divided his body in pieces and then
came out of the senate-house, each one hiding his
part of the body under his robes.
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Another version
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Others say that he disappeared while holding an
assembly outside the city. Sudden and strange
disorders filled the air, and the sun's light
failing, night came upon the assembled with
thunders and rain. When the storm had ceased and
the multitude returned, they sought for King
Romulus without finding him. So in order to appease
the people, the nobles said that Romulus had been
caught up into heaven, and was now to be a
benevolent god just as before he had been a
benevolent king. From that time Romulus has been
worshipped as a god.
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The story of Proculus
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Later, a patrician Julius Proculus swore that as
he was travelling on the road, he had met Romulus,
and that he had told him:
"It was the
pleasure of the gods, from whom I came, that I
should dwell again in heaven. Tell the Romans that
if they practise self-restraint, and add courage to
it, they will reach the utmost heights of human
power. And I will be your propitious deity
Quirinus." [Plutarch,
Parallel
Lives Romulus 28.3]
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Quirinus
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And believing Proculus' testimony, everyone put
aside all suspicion of murder and started praying
to Quirinus, honouring him as a god, and supposing
that not only his soul but also his body were in
heaven. Romulus' wife was likewise said to have
gone up with a star to heaven where she was
received by her husband and made immortal. Since
then she has been called Hora 1.
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The name of Rome
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The origin of the name of the city founded by
Romulus has been disputed. Some believe that it was
named after Romulus. Others say that the city was
called after Roma 1, who had the idea of burning
the Trojan ships that were anchored in the Tiber
[see above]. It has also been said that Rome was
named after Roma 2, the daughter of Italus and
Leucaria, or as some say, daughter of
Telephus, the son of
Heracles 1. Still
others believe that the city was named after Roma
3, daughter of Roma 1. Roma 3 is said to have
wedded King Latinus 1 and to have given birth to
the twins Romulus and Remus 1. Romanus, son of
Odysseus and
Circe, has also been said
to be at the origin of the name of Rome. It has
also been told that Romis, tyrant of the Latins,
gave his name to the city of Rome, after he had
driven out the Tuscans, who had migrated from
Thessaly into Lydia, and from Lydia into Italy.
Rome is also said to have been called after Romus,
son either of Phorbas 9, or of
Aeneas, or of Latinus 1
and Roma 3, or of
Odysseus and
Circe, or of Ascanius 2,
or of Emathion 3, or of Italus and Leucaria.
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Family
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Parentage [six versions]
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Mates
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Offspring
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Notes
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Ares
& Ilia
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Aeneas
& Dexithea 2
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Latinus 1 & Roma 3
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Ares
& Aemilia
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Phantom & Tarchetius' Maid
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Amulius & Ilia
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-
- This version ignores the kings of
Alba, and the distance in time between
Aeneas and
Romulus.
- Latinus 1 was succeeded by
Aeneas. So
this version also ignores the kings of
Alba.
- Aemilia is a daughter of
Aeneas and
Lavinia 2. This version also ignores
the kings of Alba.
- See main text above.
- For the rape of Ilia by Amulius see
main text above.
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Hersilia
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Aollius
Prima
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Hersilia, who is called Hora 1 after she became
a goddess, is said to have been the only one of the
Sabine women who was already married.
Some say that these children she had by
Hostilius, and not by Romulus.
When Hersilia died, she went up with a star to
heaven where she was received by her husband
Romulus and made immortal.
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